SWYC Summer Hollydale Church Revival

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GYC Southwest

Eric Walsh

Christ’s Authority

Glad to be with you here as we bring in the Sabbath hours.

We're instructed in the spirit of prophecy to guard well the edges of the Sabbath.

That means that when the Sabbath hours are coming on like they're coming on now in the next half hour, it's really important that we be in a place where we are ready to receive God, that we're beginning to turn off the secular things.

You know, I'm looking to buy a house in Pasadena and the realtor was calling me on the way here and telling me about their loans.

But you know, the phone cut out and I didn't call back and I just let the phone go to voicemail because it's time now to think about God and what he wants for us on the Sabbath day and to really just think about our Creator.

Sometimes we think of God only as someone looking to punish us if we do wrong.

But the fact of the matter is We serve the God who's actually looking to empower us to do right, to reward us.

Even when we mess up, his grace and his mercy still is applied to us.

So when the Sabbath hours are coming in, it's a time for us to really be fully devoted to the God we serve out of love.

Now actually I changed what I was gonna speak on because of what happened last night.

So I want you to turn with me to the book of Mark.

Mark 121, and they went into Capernaum and straightway on the Sabbath day, he entered into the synagogue and taught.

And they were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as 1 that had authority and not as the scribes.

Our message tonight is entitled Christ's Authority.

Father God, we thank you for bringing us into this place tonight.

We thank you, Lord, for all that you have done for us.

I ask, Lord, that you just empty me of self.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit, Lord, that we would hear a word from the throne room of grace.

It is our prayer in Jesus's precious and holy name.

So the Bible here in Mark 1, 21, talks about the fact that Jesus, even when he was in Capernaum, went into the synagogue.

And he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day.

Now this is important at Seventh-day Adventist, that we watch that there is this pattern, not just in Christ, but also in Paul, that regularly they visit the synagogue on the Sabbath.

So people argue and say, well, all of the other 9 commandments can be found in the New Testament except the Sabbath, but that's because the Sabbath is not like the other 9 commandments, amen?

The Sabbath is a commandment that begins with the word remember.

And what that means is that it is an active commandment.

It is what is the commandment that we are told to do.

Now you could argue honoring your mother and father is 1 like that but really that commandment is telling you not to dishonor your mother and father.

This is a commandment that tells you to do.

So the way that God makes that commandment come alive in the New Testament is he has Jesus regularly seen in the synagogue on the Sabbath.

He has Paul regularly seen in the synagogue on the Sabbath to establish for us that God expects for us to worship and to serve him.

And 1 of the ways that we do that is by resting and keeping the seven-day Sabbath.

Now some people argue, why is that so important?

And let me tell you why that's important, because any relationship must be built on time.

When a man falls in love with a woman, and he thinks that this is the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with, the first thing that comes to mind is time, the rest of your life.

But in order to get to know this person, male or female, and to build a relationship that would lead to a healthy marriage, 1 of the things you have to do is spend time together.

You've got to spend time together communicating, speaking, talking, interacting, getting to know 1 another.

You may find out if you spend enough time that it's not the right person.

So time is critical in any relationship you want to form.

Hence God in the commandments and even before sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden established the Sabbath.

Because what God wants most with you is a relationship, a real relationship, 1 that's built in communication, reading his word and in prayer, and 1 that has everything to do with the fact that you have committed a certain amount of time to God.

And the Sabbath guarantees that you'll spend that time.

In fact, the Sabbath should not be burdensome.

You know, there are a lot of people who tell me, ah, it's too hard to be an Adventist because of the Sabbath.

I thought, what is the rest of your week like then?

Because for me, after I worked so hard, multiple jobs, seeing patients, running a health department, doing all the things that I do, working on another degree, doing it, I can't wait for the Sabbath.

So I wonder what do you do all week that the Sabbath to rest and not do anything is so terrible.

In fact, what that says to me is that the state of your relationship with God is in trouble.

Because you would rather spend your Sabbath hours in earthly recreation and entertainment than with the God of the universe.

Because I'd rather spend my time in God's word and in God's house than in a movie theater.

Or at a ball game or watching a ball game.

He goes into the synagogue on the Sabbath.

And when he teaches and preaches, the Bible says that they're astonished at his doctrine, because he's not talking like the scribes and Pharisees did.

The Bible says he taught them as 1 that had authority and not as the scribes.

Absolutely, in fact, Jesus is 100% God and he was 100% man.

He came to earth and when Jesus opened his mouth to speak, He didn't simply speak with the authority of a great preacher on earth.

He spoke with the authority of the God of the universe.

So can you imagine when he walks into the synagogue and he speaks.

It is the same Jesus speaking who spoke and said, let there be light.

So when he's speaking the same creative power that was that enabled him because Paul tells us that nothing was created that was not created by Christ.

So if Jesus created everything imagine when the same being that spoke the universe into existence spoke in the synagogue can you imagine how it transformed lives for him to be able to not only speak truth but to read the people.

And let me tell you something, he still speaks with authority.

The problem for a lot of us is that we are not allowing him to speak in our lives.

Verse 23 is where our story gets started.

Bible says, and there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit.

Now, in this time in Israel, 1 of the things you find as you read not just the Gospels, but the Book of Acts as well, a lot of people were demon-possessed.

And you have to ask yourself, what happens?

How does someone allow themselves or how does someone become demon possessed?

The demons do not have the right to simply take a person.

That means somehow that demon has to be given permission, a chance, authority to get into that person.

So something has to open up that individual for the demon to come in.

Christ’s Authority

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